Attention home guitar builders! We’ve teamed up with renowned lutherie tool and parts supplier StewMac to launch our first ever competition to find Britain’s best amateur guitar builder. To make it worth your while, StewMac have put up a fantastic prize of $500 worth of StewMac's professional lutherie supplies for the overall winner plus one runner-up prize of $250 worth of StewMac supplies. So as well as the glory of winning you'll take home your choice of pro-grade tools and materials from StewMac to help you build your next creation.
For this inaugural competition we’ll be inviting entries for original electric guitar designs, either solidbody or semi-acoustic. So what do you have to do? Simply click on the entry link here to enter. You’ll be asked to submit a single, good-quality image of your creation, as well as a short but detailed description of the guitar you built, describing its spec and standout features.
We’re particularly looking for evidence of a skilled, original build and outstanding attention to detail – so if you poured heart and soul into your creation, let us know all about it! Please note that, regretfully, partscaster builds are not eligible – and while it’s fine for your entry to be influenced by well-known designs, we won’t be accepting clones of famous models by major makers. In other words, it’s time to let your creativity and originality shine through...
As this is a competition for British amateur guitar builders we regretfully cannot accept submissions from professional guitar makers or overseas makers either – though we may open up the field in future competitions if there is sufficient interest.
As the competition unfolds, we’ll be keeping readers posted on progress with regular reports, so even if your design doesn’t win, it may well make it into the mag as part of our ongoing coverage – so there’s everything to play for. When all the entries are in by the deadline of 5 March 2020, Guitarist’s review team will hand-select a shortlist of the most promising designs – after which the lutherie experts at StewMac will join us to select the triumphant winners.
Please note, more images and info about your guitar may be required by the judges in the event that it is shortlisted, to help them make their final selection, so please be prepared for that eventuality. As well as the fantastic prizes put up by StewMac, the winners will be invited to visit Guitarist’s studio (public health rules permitting) to watch their winning designs being photographed professionally by the same team who shoot our review guitars in loving detail every issue.
Naturally, we’ll showcase those winning guitars in detail in the mag, too, to celebrate your work and share it with Guitarist readers around the world. We can’t wait to see what you’ve been building, so get entering – and may the best luthier win!
